Songs of the King＊s Wives: Women, Power and Performance in the Yoruba Public Sphere

作者：B Omojola

来源：Africa Development, 2009.

Indigenous festivals, which rely significantly on music and dance, often constitute the village public sphere and the social arena within which the structures of power are performed and negotiated in traditional African communities. This article discusses two unique musical traditions which feature prominently at annual traditional festivals in Emure-Ekiti, a Yoruba town in Western Nigeria. The musical traditions are orin olori (songs of the king＊s wives) and a related ensemble, orin airegbe, a musical tradition associated with female chiefs. Exploring an ethnomusicological approach, this article argues that the complementary relationship between these two all-female musical traditions and the scope of their performance practices draw attention to the ways in which public performance speaks to the status and agency of women in traditional Yoruba societies.

• 出版日期2009